26 June 2015, Bolingey (White Acres)

One of the ‘first world problems’ you are faced with during any trip to White Acres is the lack of a 3G signal. Owing to the lack of access to the BBC Weather app unconfirmed rumours soon spread of monsoon-like weather for today – however when I woke-up and peered through the curtains all seemed well. The settled weather continued through the usual Bolingey rules briefing from Andy Dare and even beyond the two hour setting-up period – and then the heavens opened …
  

Once the monsoon passed it turned-out nice!!!

  
The Friday Bolingey match has become something of a fixture of our trips to White Acres and is certainly something I look forward to. A nice bacon roll, great fishing and a fish supper from the Port & Starboard on the way back to the lodge – what’s not to like? My home for the day was to be peg 40 – despite only having fished a handful of matches on Bolingey this is the second time I’ve drawn this (very average) peg, having drawn it on the 28th of June 2013 and ending-up with seventy-odd pounds caught mainly down the edge on worm over groundbait (a tactic now banned at Bolingey).
  

Looking left towards the famous bridge

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
My tactics for the day were to be relatively simple – left and right margins, 5m on the deck with the pole and a straight lead plus a full-depth waggler for fishing into the open water around the aerator. The first 90 minutes were pretty slow with just roach on the 5m line, nothing from either margin (despite the young lad on 41 connecting with one munter after another from his margins) and just three small carp on the bomb.
  

Another one bites the dust!!!

  
The next two hours however were pretty hectic – I caught well enough on the bomb, but the average stamp (2-3lb) was far too far below average meaning I was falling further and further behind my neighbour as every fish that hit his net looked like a ten or twelve pounder!!! Going into the final 90 minutes I decided to scrap the bomb line and to focus instead on rotating between my right margin, the 5m line and my left margin – unfortunately things never really happened and all I could manage was a good fish hooked squarely in the tail on an 8mm pellet on the 5m line and a small sample from the right margin on double-corn. This gave me 55-8-0, miles behind the lad on 41 (165lb), winner Pete Franklin (180 plus pounds) and my old mate Chris Couch on 43 (70 pounds) – who I now owe a pound to!!!
  
Until next time …
  

All the Gear, No Idea’s Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

25 June 2015, Pollawyn (White Acres)

After a couple of pleasure sessions (a reasonable day on Pollawyn 18 catching carp and skimmers on waggler and bomb, followed by a really good day catching F1s on the jigga on Jenny’s 41) it was soon time for the White Acres’ Thursday rover match and good draw required as effectively only Jenny’s, Trelawney and Pollawyn would be available today due to the Olde English Cider festival taking-up Twin Oaks, Python, Canal and Acorn.
  

The High Bank, Pollawyn

  
Despite having a good day on Jenny’s yesterday I narrowed-down my ideal location to the High Bank of Pollawyn or 5-6 wider pegs on Trelawney where I had planned to pinch a few carp on the tip before plundering some big F1s on the jigga. As it happened I drew 10 (out of about 70) and despite there being some pleasure anglers already on the High Bank I was able to squeeze myself onto peg 25 on Pollawyn – this is the peg to the right of where I was on Tuesday (18) as here is a rather madcap numbering scheme on this lake!
  

Looking slightly to the left from Pollawyn 25

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
The White Acres’ rover is an unusual match as everybody that weighs-in gets a prize – though if you finish outside of the frame this is normally limited to a bag of pellets, pretty much making this a ‘do or die’ competition as there are no section prizes as such. As a result my plan of attack and bait allowance were very simple – to fish into the deeper water in front of the central island on the straight lead and/or waggler with a mixture of Dynamite Swimstim 8mm pellets (standard sized pellets) and White Acres 8mm pellets (which are more like 10/11mm donkey chokers).
  

Drennan wagglers

  
The gear for the straight lead was the usual heavy set-up – 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line, either a one third or a two thirds of an ounce square bomb connected by a snap link swivel and stopped on the line by a large Guru float stop, finished-off with 30cm of 0.22 N-Gauge and a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band. The float gear was slightly more subtle – 4lb main line, a 3g Drennan glow tip carp waggler held in place by two medium float stops below and one above, with 25cm of 0.17 N-Gauge and a size 18 Guru Pellet Waggler hook at the business end. (These new Drennan wagglers are slightly thicker than a standard waggler but are much slimmer than the Preston Innovations Dura pellet wagglers and are basically much more discrete.)
  

Looking right towards the gap between the islands

  
To cut a very long and boring story short the match itself was an anti-climax as I could only manage one carp (on the straight lead after about 30 minutes) and nothing else but skimmers to end with a lowly 19-8-0; in all fairness nobody around me caught more than a couple of carp each and personally I feel my tactics and execution were correct – it was just one of those days where the car were further down the lake in the gap between the islands where my old mate Martin Johnson fished a blinder and made no mistake (on the same tactics) to land 130 odd pounds!!!
  

Chris Haywood next door

  
I also had the pleasure of fishing next to good friend Chris Haywood today – we started on similar tactics, though after an hour Chris saw that the writing was on the wall and switched to a more festival-style approach to score nearly fifty pounds of skimemrs on the short pole with meat and barbell down the edge on worm over groundbait, in the end only fifteen pounds off a top six finish.
   

Until next time …

  

All the Gear, No Idea’s Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

22 June 2015, Pollawyn (White Acres)

What’s this – not another week at White Acres surely??? Whilst Bagger and 95 others take part in the keenly contested Olde English Cider festival I’ll be doing the residents matches and trying to sort a few things out on a couple of practice days.
  

Cosy!!!

  

After a good day on Acorn on Saturday, today saw my first match of the week – the Gold match, to be fished across Pollawyn and Trelawney by forty-odd anglers. My dip into the bag of dreams saw Pollawyn 21 attach itself to my trusty drawing hand – personally I’ve not fished this lake much recently and as I’ve never fished on any of the ‘point’ pegs I was going to be in for an interesting day!
  

Looking right, down one of the arms of Pollawyn

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  
In all fairness 21 isn’t an out-and-out ‘point’ peg, instead it is effectively at the mouth of one of the arms directly opposite the end of one of the spits. As a result I had the point of the spit to cast to, as well as a decent looking margin to the right, some open water at 45 degrees to my left and a bit of room to fish the short pole directly in front.
  

The point of the spit

  

Having paid the price for being something of a one trick pony on the recent Garbolino Spring Classic I decided to set-up a range of options: a tip rod with 8lb Daiwa Sensor main line, a 24g Guru X-Safe method feeder and a range of hooklengths (but mainly 10cm of 0.22 N-Gauge into a 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band); a second tip rod with a one third of an ounce square Guru bomb with a large Guru float stop and 30cm of 0.19 to a 14 QM1 (and a hair-rigged pellet band); a pole line for skimmers at top kit plus two consisting of white Hydro, 0.15 main line, a 4x12 KC Carpa Force, 0.13 hooklength and a size 16 Guru LWG hook; and finally an edge rig with a 0.3g SconeZone v6 on 0.19 directly to a size 14 MWG and purple Hydro.
  

The open water line to the left

  

As per usual I tried and failed to catch a margin munter first off before feeding my top kit plus 2 pole line with 6mm meat and picking-up my method rod. The first 90 minutes (1030-1200) were hardly hectic, but regular pulls on the tip and a few dips on the float saw about 10lb of skimmers and a random F1 hit the net. The next hour (1200-1300) saw less fish but a similar weigh go into the net as I managed a carp from the open water line to the left on an 8mm pellet to go with a few more eight ounce skimmers. 1300-1430 saw yet another 10lb in the net, though by this time the skimmers had moved-off and most of that weight consisted of an immaculate 2lb barbell and some F1s on the bomb into open water.
  

An envelope at long last!!!

  
With an hour to go I potted 4 cups of my Old Ghost margin mix down the edge to my right at top kit plus one and switched back to the method feeder to the point of the spit – this saw a few pulls from 2-3lb carp at regular intervals. However there were lots of swirls (though not necessarily from big fish) down the edge so I had a bit of a quandary! In the end I managed a 4lb barbell and a 10lb carp from the edge on double worm, plus a few more small carp on the method, leaving me on 53-15-0 – less than five pounds from a top 6 finish but a nice section win nonetheless!!!
  
Until next time ...
  

All the Gear, No Idea's Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

14 June 2015, Harris Lake (Marsh Farm)

This time last year I drew on Harris Lake at Marsh Farm and promptly blanked. Not only did I blank- I was beaten off the next peg by Dave Johnson!!! As a result I swore I’d never fish a match on Harris Lake ever again – so as you can imagine I was a little concerned when I heard that today’s Godalming versus Farnham club match was to include the whole of Richardson’s Lake plus a section on Harris. This gave me a 3:1 chance of being on Richardson’s – so of course I drew 13 on Harris!!!

  

Unlucky for some???

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  

Having plenty of time to set-up (and wanting to avoid another blank at all costs) I decided to cover a few options. Firstly I set-up two rods – the first was my usual ‘take no prisoners’ feeder kit featuring 8lb mainline, a 24g Guru pellet feeder, 0.19 N-Gauge and a size 16 QM1 with a pellet band; the second was a more subtle set-up for the same far bank line featuring 4lb Daiwa Sensor, a one third of an ounce Guru square bomb trapped on the line a by a large Guru float stop and a 12 inch hooklength of 0.15 into a 16 QM1 with a band. I also set-up 2 pole rigs to catch roach either on the deck and/or up in the water at top kit plus 2 and a final rig for fishing chopped worm/caster at 13m for (hopefully) tench and cruians.

  

The view to the left ...

  

I spent the first hour on the tip – I did manage a tench second chuck on the pellet feeder, but no further indications on either the feeder or straight lead left me wondering if the obviously low water level of the lake was going to make such tactics a non-starter today.

  

... and to the right

  

During this time I’d been feeding the top kit plus 2 line with casters and the first 4 drops with the deck rig (yellow Hydro, 0.11, 4x14 Chimp, bulk plus one dropper, 0.10, Tubertini 808 size 22) saw three decent roach in the net. A few missed bites then saw a switch to the shallow rig (same again but a 4x10 Chianti set at 18 inches) – this led to more missed bites before I quickly couldn’t get a bite on either!!!

  

Fishery or wildfowl sanctuary?

  

The next three hours (1145-1445) were then very tough with only a tench and a small crucian out of the blue on the bomb & pellet rig, despite my constant rotation and trickle feeding of the three lines. Things did pick-up towards the end with a tench and two more crucians on the method (which I’d swapped to from the pellet feeder), though just as things were getting going it was 1530 and time for the final whistle. In the end my fish went 17-10-0 – not bad, but only good enough for fourth in section behind 20lb, 21lb and 25lb.

  

Until next time ...

  

All the Gear, No Idea's Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

22 May 2015, Bolingey (White Acres)

Being just a four day festival, the Garbolino Spring Classic leaves the Friday free and that can only mean one thing – Bolingey!!!

  

All the gear ...

  

Today’s weather was a combination of thick mist and fog – not ideal, but at least that cold north-easterly wind has dropped at last!

  

Peg 11 today!

  

 

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

   

My draw saw me on peg 11 – a nice peg on the lake at the rear of the venue with a nice chuck to one of the points of the central island. As a result a pellet feeder up to the far margin would be my main focus and given the size of the fish in this venue I’d definitely be using my heavier hooklengths of 10cm of 0.22 Guru N-Gauge into a size 14 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band. 6mm White Acres pellets would be the main hookbaits, though in fact these are somewhere between a standard 6mm and a standard 8mm – something like a 7mm I guess you could say! As well as the pellet feeder I also geared-up a straight lead rig for fishing into open water at 20-25m slightly to the left and a margin pole rig for fishing towards the vacant peg 12 next door.

 

Off to a good start on the pellet feeder

   

My match started well and at the end of the first hour I’d clicked-up to 33lb of pellet feeder caught carp. The second hour was somewhat slower with nothing on the pellet feeder – however lots of fizzing on my 20-25m line saw me try the bomb. This failed to produce any bites, but a hastily assembled waggler (fished at mid-depth) saw me snare a big F1 and a 4lb carp to move my total along to about 39lb.

  

Looking across to pegs 25 & 26

  

The third hour was spent mainly on the pellet feeder and sport was reasonable with 2 good carp and an F1 making their way to the net. Hour 4 was also OK with 3 more carp on the pellet feeder moving me on to about seventy pounds going into that all important final hour.

  

The vacant platform of peg 12

  

This season has seen a significant change in the rules at Bolingey – basically you are now no longer allowed to use one of my most productive tactics, groundbait down the edge!!! As a result I had to replace my usual edge mix with micro pellets and dead red maggots, but to cut a long story short I didn’t manage a single bite from the margins – I’m not sure if this was down to my choice of feed or whether the fish just didn’t fancy the area I was in, but those along the far side of the lake to my left all bagged-up from their margins in the final hour!

  

Back on the pellet feeder

  

Unfortunately I could only manage 2 carp on the pellet feeder to the island in the final 60 minutes, giving me a total of 84-7-0, a decent enough bag but just behind a string of low to mid 90lb weights to my left, that final hour having really cost me at the final reckoning.

  

The all important pay-out

  

In the end there were a handful of 100lb weights, though nothing over 120lb. Well done to good friends Mike Halstead for coming second overall and Jon Cook for beating me off the next peg to win the section.

  

Until next time …

  

All the Gear, No Idea's Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

21 May 2015, Trewaters (White Acres)

So in the blink of an eye it's soon onto the final day of the 2015 Garbolino Spring Classic festival at White Acres, the top lake at Trewaters being my home for the day.

  

All the usual pre-match excitement!!!

  

Today's dip into the bag of dreams provided peg 33 - a swim facing one of the points of the central island, effectively in the corner of the lake formed by the causeway (between the top and bottom lakes) and far banks of the pond.

  

Looking beyond the point of the island

  

  

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

  

This peg does provide a long margin to the right - however (rightly or wrongly) I initially chose to ignore it today as a close inspection revealed fairly clear water and lots of Canadian pond weed/bull rushes so I decided to focus on the pellet feeder to the island, especially as peg 34 won the lake yesterday with seventy plus pounds on that tactic.

  

All the gear ...

   

As a result setting-up didn't take long as I just rigged-up one tip rod with the usual 8lb Daiwa Sensor mainline, 30g small Preston pellet feeder, 0.22 bottom and a size 16 QM1 with a hair-rigged pellet band.

  

A rare sight!

  

The match started slowly with just one small carp, one F1 and 2 four ounce blades for about 4 pounds after the hour mark. With nothing to lose I stepped-down my hooklength slightly to 0.19 (not something I like doing on any carp venue) - this did see 2 F1s hooked, but both fell-off on the retrieve so I decided to swap to a 24g Guru X-Safe pellet feeder (the elasticated version that is now allowed at White Acres) and put an F1 in the bag first chuck!

  

The long margin to the right

  

This however was a false dawn and a couple of chucks on the feeder along the margin past the rushes led to a couple of pulls but only two more lost F1s due to the weed.

  

Looking down the lake to the left

  

Luckily things did pick-up in the second half of the match with a total of 10 carp of various sizes falling to the pellet feeder to the island. As a result I managed to put 36-8-0 on the scales - beaten fairly and squarely by peg 34's 50 odd pounds, but only just behind peg 35's 41lb for third in section, somehow giving me a £20 pick-up for a double default section win!

  

The first pick-up of the week!

  

Today's result saw me finish the festival with a total of 13 points and 106-8-0 in weight - a very disappointing 40th out of 72 and a world away from last year's podium finish. However congratulations must go to this year's top three who all finished on 23 points and had to be divided by total weight - Harry Billing coming-out top again followed by Reece Hearn and good friend Danny Edwards.

  

Your top three

  

Final top 10 overall:

1. Harry Billing, 23 points, 275-14-0
2. Reece Hearn, 23 points, 241-4-0
3. Danny Edwards, 23 points, 207-8-0
4. Steve Evans, 22 points, 208-2-0
5. Matt Bunting, 22 points, 176-4-0
6. Roy Penkethman, 21 points, 359-3-0
7. Adam Playford, 21 points, 185-12-0
8. Mick Kinton, 20 points, 195-9-0
9. Simon Gould, 20 points, 188-4-0
10. Mike Halstead, 20 points, 185-15-0

So the festival is over but there is still one more match to go - c'mon Bolingey!

  

Until tomorrow ...

  

All the Gear, No Idea's Facebook page

  

My Twitter page

20 May 2015, Twin Oaks (White Acres)

Regular readers will know that my recent drawing form on the lower numbered Twin Oaks has been rather good - so good in fact that my two most recent visits to this lake have seen me on the 'best peg in the country' (16 of course)!!! Therefore when peg 6 stuck to my mitt it just about summed-up how my week has been going!!!

   

Make or break time

   

In all fairness peg 6 is a good draw in this festival as it is part of a section that covers 1-6, so I'd effectively be fishing a different match to those in the big weight section (13-18).

   

Lights, camera, action!

    

   

The View from my Peg (YouTube)

   

As I knew I'd be fishing for somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds for good section points (not that this really matters after yesterday) I decided to cover a few options, namely: my usual pellet feeder rod for tight over to the far margin; 3 rigs for the long pole shallow (2 jiggas and a swinger); a rig for skimmers at top kit plus two (0.15 mainline, 4x14 KC Carpa Force, 0.13 hooklength, size 16 LWG, bulk and one dropper, blue Hydro); and a margin rig just in case some munters turned-up under my feet.

   

Looking left towards peg 1

   

On the whistle I had two minutes dobbing about on my margin rig looking for an early mug fish - as per usual this tactic failed so I was soon onto the pellet feeder and into a 10 ounce roach (!) and a 3lb carp before this line died on the third cast!

   

In for a penny, ...

   

This saw a switch to the 5m line and after feeding six balls of Old Ghost Green Alga I managed to winkle-out two nice skimmers on dead maggots leaving me on 7lb after the first hour - hardly flying but better than yesterday!

   

A skimmer from the 5m line

   

The second hour however was pretty slow with just one or two skimmers from the 5m line, though I did spend a fruitless 30 minutes on the long pole shallow trying to get into some F1s - this was rather disappointing as I'd hoped this would've been a productive tactic now that the wind had finally died-off. The third hour was OK with a decent F1 out of the blue on the pellet feeder and four reasonable skimmers on the pole at 5m moving me on to 18 pounds or so.

   

The view to the right

   

Unfortunately the next hour and fifty minutes were a disaster with nothing but 3 of the world's smallest roach going into the net - the 5m line basically died and I spent a lot of time fishing into the deeper water this side of the bottom of the far shelf into 'no man's land' (so-called by Simon Gould who caught a lot of fish on this line yesterday from peg 12). Part of the problem was that I hooked and eventually lost a very, very big fish on this line first cast, so I stuck on it longer that I should have - having said that I think this could be a very useful tactic to explore in the future as basically nobody seems to fish beyond 14.5m from the near bank or further than 2m from the far bank, leaving a massive safe zone in between!

   

Back on the pellet feeder

   

Luckily the final ten minutes saw two pulls and two good carp tight over on the pellet feeder, giving me a reasonable 29-0-0 - a reasonable weight until peg 1 weighed in 50-8-0 and I was then proceeded to be beaten by 32-13-0, 31-8-0 and 30-0-0, only managing to beat 28-6-0 for 2 points once again!

   

Bagger on the high numbered Twin Oaks

   

Overall top 10 after day 3:

1. Roy Penkethman, 17 points, 326-13-0
2. Harry Billing, 17 points, 221-12-0
3. Reece Hearn, 17 points, 162-10-0
4. Danny Edwards, 17 points, 161-6-0
5. Adam Playford, 17 points, 155-11-0
6. Matt Bunting, 17 points, 139-2-0
7. Steve Evans, 16 points, 153-7-0
8. Mike Halstead, 16 points, 143-13-0
9. Ricky Dennis, 16 points, 127-6-0
10. Simon Smith, 16 points, 112-9-0

  

So going into tomorrow's final day we have six anglers tied at the top on 17 points - whilst personally I languish in 45th place!!!

  
Until tomorrow ...

   

All the Gear, No Idea's Facebook page

   

My Twitter page